DELIVERIES & DATES THIS WEEK

LIVE SESSION:

The live session will be held on TUE 10 March from 15:00-16:30 CET by Anna Carlson and Åsa Rexare Simonsen , Head of Learning design at Hyper Island.

Make sure you watch the 29 minute content video below so you are ready to dive deep into the session with Åsa!

TASKS & DELIVERIES:

1. POD CALL (Recommended on Thursday and lead by Thea, Tine and Paloma): The Elephant and the Rider

2. DESIGN AN ALLIANCE CHALLENGE (We will have additional support to do this on this Friday's Round-table)

3. UPDATE YOUR CANVASES

4. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION JOURNAL

See instructions for each delivery below. All deliveries should be uploaded as a PDF in the #3_barriers-engagement channel on Slack by Sunday.

Driving Transformation is about facilitating people to think and act differently.

By now you have a clearly defined ‘Case for Change’ and are ready to move forward with it. You know why your organization needs to change, what your current situation looks like, where you want to be in the future and what changes need to be made in order to get there.

In a dream world everything would go smoothly but as we are learning here, there will be challenges along the way. Why? Because Driving Transformation is about facilitating people to think and act differently. Collaborating with others brings complexity; differing needs, beliefs, fears and motivations will all present themselves.

There isn’t one solution or one way to make change happen, rather there are principles, mindsets and tools that can help us navigate this complexity and facilitate transformation.

During this module we will take a deep dive into understanding how to remove barriers and create engagement with others to achieve the change you desire.

EMPATHIZE WITH “YOUR” PEOPLE

So, if Driving Transformation is about facilitating people, let’s explore how we can better empathize with our stakeholders. “Putting yourself in their shoes” helps gain important understanding of their perspectives and of the contexts in which they work.

By working with a better understanding of the people you will encounter on your path, you will be more responsive to adapting your approaches to inspiring action in others. Check out this video for some inspiration about different thinking styles.

Reflect:

• Who is key in supporting you to make the change happen?

• Who are the formal or informal decision maker/s for this change?

• Who will be affected by the change?

• What are their needs, fears, beliefs and motivations?

IDENTIFY BARRIERS

Looking at your Case for Change. What barriers can you identify? What motivations, fears, and beliefs have emerged?

Think Kaizen. Dare to improve and progress as you learn.

You can't predict 100% or with total accuracy how people think and feel or how they will react, but you can articulate your assumptions. By doing this now, you can later question or validate them.

A helpful way to identify your barriers could be to learn by doing, in small iterations. Share your ‘Case for Change’ with colleagues across the organization in a casual manner or even in smaller workshops. Observe how they react to what you share, stay curious and try to understand their incentives, underlying beliefs or needs. This allows you to go deeper, moving past the surface of their existing behaviors.

Most organizations create truths and beliefs that become a legacy culture. As Richard Barrett says, “A culture of an organization is a reflection of the values, beliefs and behaviors of current leaders and the legacy of past leaders”. These beliefs and truths may become barriers for change to happen but thankfully there are lots of ways to remove them. For example, what looks like a people problem can sometimes be a situational problem. As a facilitator of change, you can always try to reshape a given situation.

We can look to Hyper Island and share an example with you. When we realized technology would have a huge impact on the education industry, we started a change process.

In the beginning as we walked around and asked… “So what do you think e-learning could mean to Hyper Island?”. The reactions were fairly closed and uninterested and you would hear comments like “Our methodology only works for face to face experiences, that is not relevant to us”.

This belief was one of the first barriers to change to present itself. Quite quickly we realised that we needed to re-shape the situation and phrase questions differently. It was important to do so in a way that our existing and effective methodology would not feel threatened.

We had a Kaizen moment.

We started to create cross functional experiments where people got the task to explore and prototype “How might technology strengthen our methodology and learning experience?”. The tangible experiences and quick win outcomes suddenly unlocked the curiosity we needed to continue to transformation process.

How can you reframe your question to open up curiosity and action?

Reflect:

• What are the barriers you have in front of you?

• What are the underlying needs that causes the barriers?

• How can you unlock progress by meeting that need in a different way?

CREATE ENGAGEMENT THROUGH LOGIC AND EMOTIONAL DRIVERS

The brain has two systems, the emotional side and the rational side. The emotional side is the part of you that is instinctive, that feels pain and joy. The rational side, is the part that analyzes and looks into the future.

For an individual's’ behavior to change, you’ve got to shape not only their environment but their hearts and minds.

Jonathan Haidt says in his book The Happiness Hypothesis, our emotional side is an “Elephant” and our rational side is the “Rider”. The “Rider” provides the planning and direction, and the “Elephant” provides the energy. So if you manage to stimulate the “Riders” but not the “Elephants”, people will have understanding without motivation. If you reach their “Elephants” but not their “Riders”, they’ll have passion without direction. In Driving Transformation you’ll need to find a balance to appeal to both sides. You also need to shape the “Path” and make it easy to embrace the change. Create guidance and step-by-step instructions for actions to take towards the vision. Set up training programs, prototyping workshops or peer-to-peer support groups. Rephrase the case for change to unlock curiosity and action.

LEAD THE CHANGE

To give another example, during 2016 Hyper Island developed a program for Endeavor, a global high-impact entrepreneurship movement focused on helping entrepreneurs mobilize their communities forward. The program’s goal was to accelerate Endeavor's case for change of inspiring and empowering the organization to unite via a common culture and vision of one Endeavor.

During the course of 6 months Hyper Island worked closely with 25 Endeavor Managing Directors from around the world via in-person workshops and online coaching. One of the main challenges the group faced was the ability to motivate people to rally behind their new vision/mission.

As they continued in their journey, they realized there were 3 clear tracks to follow (each would take a long time) to get people to change their ways of working and thinking:

• Motivating the Elephant: The first one was to completely transform their leadership style, to one that can operate in a VUCA world. Making the change so obvious others want to imitate the new behavior: Asking questions rather than always providing the “right” answer, questioning assumptions instead of relying on legacy mental models, projecting an abundance mindset versus a scarcity (short-term focused) one, and developing an environment that not only invites to try and learn but actually rewards it.

• Directing the Rider: The second one was to develop a clear framework everyone can “sign off” on. Something tangible yet flexible enough for people to feedback, question and evolve.

• Shaping the Path: Opened up a forum (on Slack) were the MDs gave each other feedback on their progress and development. This gave permission to the rest of the company to participate in the same open and human way with the change that was being driven by the leaders.

After 6 months of continued transparency, openness and vulnerability, the managing directors were able to redefine their core organisational structure, develop digital assets to help global communication be more seamless and most importantly developed the beginning of a culture in harmony; all striving towards the same goal.

In this powerful video, ‘Lead like the great conductors’, you can see different leadership styles that can guide you in which type of leader your case for change will need in order to break barriers quickly and generate high engagement.

Reflect:

• Which type of leadership style would support your case for change at this moment?

• What would you need to change in your ways of working to empathize that more?

LEADING THROUGH RESISTANCE

If your case for change is worth your time, you will face resistance. If not, there is more room for you to push yourself and the case.

Resistance has one sole mission: to keep things as they are. It shows up when we are getting close to the things we want. It’s a tricky little thing with a hundred different costumes. Recognizing resistance and overcoming it is a lifelong commitment and each time we do, we get closer to reaching our potential.

“The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.”

– Steven Pressfield

Resistance stops creativity in its tracks at whatever cost. It leads to over rationalizing a decision, it inspires fear and anxiety and presents a whole host of other distractions - especially giving voice to your inner critic. Resistance leverages any tool to stop the creative flow in you - the individual, no matter what it is you are trying to build, lead or change.

Resistance tend to change shapes. Perhaps you recognize it from a context where it often shows up. For example, you go out for a run, feel fantastic and promise yourself you will do this at least 3 times a week. But next time you’ve planned to get out again you realise you have to work instead, but you’ll go tomorrow. Tomorrow you bring your gear to work, but then you feel so tired, maybe you’re getting sick? It’s best to rest - there is so much to do. “I’ll go if I feel better tomorrow”. Tomorrow comes and you feel better, but then you realise you’re out of milk at home and you have to go and get some. Do you see the pattern here?

RESISTANCE IN OTHERS

When working with your case you will face your own forms of resistance and that of your colleagues as well. Sharing fears together is a powerful tool to help each other deal with resistance. The “Stinky Fish” exercise is one way of working with the fears held by your team.

Another exercise to do with your team is to share your goals: share where your heart wants to be and help each other get your asses there!

Steven Pressfield uses the man who wants to be a painter as an example. If it’s painting that you want to do, get your ass in front of an easel. If you want to do a TED Talk, get your ass in front of a group of people. Bring your team together, share your goals and focus on the work that brings you closer to the goal. Share your progress and help each other get past resistance as it shows up. If we don’t know what we are each up against how can we help each other?

The more scared we are over a work or a calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

Reflect:

• Think of a time when you overcame resistance, how did it show up and how did you work through it?

• When is resistance strongest for you in relation to your case for change?

• What kind of resistance do you face from your colleagues as a response to your case for change?

• How can you do to support your colleagues to overcome the resistance?

Apply all your reflections and insights from this learning kit to update your canvases!

1.POD CALL (THU 12 MAR) {suggested} Led by Thea, Tine, and Paloma.

In this pod call, you'll explore the theme of behaviour change using the elephant, rider and path metaphor. Use the time together to discuss and explore how the different elements of the metaphor translate in your own case. Support each other to unlock insights about how you can "direct the rider," "motivate the elephant," and "shape the path."

SUGGESTED AGENDA

1. Check in: (5-10 minutes) Create your own check in question and format

2. Elephant, Rider, Path for your cases: (35 minutes) Share and coach each other around the following questions

   • How can you provide clear direction and logical, relevant arguments to appeal the rider of your stakeholders?

   • How can you engage people’s elephant (their emotional side), get them experience, feel and cooperate?

   • How can you shape the situation and illustrate the path for the change?

3. Identify actions (10 minutes) Identify and share relevant individual actions coming out of the reflection

4. Check Out: (5 minutes) Create your own check out question and format

TO DELIVER

WHAT: Share a brief summary of your elephant, rider, path insights in the channel #3_barriers_engagement

DEADLINE: By Sunday

3. UPDATE YOUR CANVASES

Take time to reflect on what you learned or discovered via the live session, the pod call and roundtable and integrate new learnings into your canvases.

TO DELIVER

WHAT: An updated version of your Case for Change and Leadership Canvas.

WHERE: Upload a PDF in Slack, channel #3_barriers_engagement

DEADLINE: By Sunday